Lately.

So much has been going on! I wish I had the time to tell you all about it.

Suffice it to say that all is well here. Every night before dinner my boss says, "It's a great day in the state of Maine!" Yes sir, he is correct.

We've been battling a bit of rain - or as we like to call it 'liquid sunshine.' No biggie, camp goes on and the fun continues.





Tonight I had the pleasure of hanging out with our seventh grade campers for a night under the stars. We took them on sunset pontoon boat rides, cooked s'mores and busted out the guitar around the camp fire. It just doesn't get more cliche than that.

The lake was looking particularly spectacular and I couldn't help but make a run for my camera.





Oh! I almost forgot - TC is here! I've never been so happy to see him in my whole life.





And Maple Monster is here. All of the sudden my cabin is crowded and dirty. She can go back to Canada any time now.

Anyone want a black lab?

Skunked.

Someone got in a fight with a skunk tonight. And lost.

Can you guess who it was?

It wasn't this nice paddler.

It wasn't this sweet sailor.

It wasn't any of these nice counselors.

It wasn't any of these neon ladies.

It WAS a big black and white dog who likes to sleep right next to me.

She ran off into the woods tonight and got into a little scuffle. After a second she trotted back over to me with her tail was nice and proud, wagging back and forth. It was as if she was awfully proud of how she defended me against some rabid animal. 

I wondered what animal she had taken off after - and then the unmistakable smell wafted over to me.

Anyone want to dog sit for the summer? I'll throw in a bottle of Febreeze.

The Other Side of Camp.

Here at camp I work on the lake. I spend my days wondering around the waterfront making sure that waterskiing, sailing, kayaking, crew and swimming are all doing what they are supposed to be doing. 

Sometimes I forget that the rest of camp exists. Challenge course is buried back in the woods. I don't even know where riflery is. I only know the horses are at the barn because I can smell them. I have a decent idea of what tennis, soccer and the rest of athletics do all day, but I've never seen them in action.

Perhaps the most elusive area of them all has to be our nature area. I know we have farm animals for the kids to interact with and learn about. I know where nature building is located. But I bet I've been there twice in the past eight years.

The other day was a day off for our staff. Therefore, the animal staff was off camp. Somehow they swindled the office manager into feeding the animals for the day. I volunteered to help. And by 'help', I meant taking pictures and laughing at Aly as she ran in circles chasing the pig.

We have two goats that needed some attention.

They're a bit skittish and haven't quite warmed up to the whole human thing.

We have a pig too. He might be the funniest damn animal on the planet. I think I'll name him Bacon.

He even has the curly tail! 

The poor little guy did not want to eat his chow where he was supposed to so he kept running over the goat food and making a gigantic mess. 

Aly did her best to herd him into his pen, but then she decided she wanted to touch his nose and then he was just plain old pissed off.

We took care of the rabbits too.

And by 'we', I mean Aly. Their creepy red eyes aren't exactly my cup of tea.

I got the duck food but then got sidetracked because I got distracted by their upside down kiddie pool. Aly said it was upside down because they aren't big enough to get in and out of it yet. Apparently we have to build the duckies some stairs so that they can swim. You think I'm kidding. I'm not.

I did try and make friends with the goat, but he wasn't really having it. Although he didn't bite me so I guess I'll take that as a win.

We have a fishing area too, but you know I'm not going anywhere near that nonsense. Neither worms nor fish have legs. 

Fishing in the pond is pretty much my hell on Earth.

If you need me, I'll be in the middle of the lake. Far, far away from the farm animals.

Back at Camp.

After several hours of being nudged in the arm by a big wet nose, Hobie and I finally made it to the good ole' United States.

You know you're way far north when you see the beginning of I-95.

Thankfully, we had no problems at the border. My country always welcomes me back with open arms.

I love this sign. I take the same photo every year. 

Of all the state's slogans, Maine has the best.

I don't know if you've ever driven through Northern Maine, but it looks like this for nearly 200 miles. Seriously, this is not the place to break down. However, if you're in the business of taking photos while driving you won't have any problems. I think I was slowed to about 20mph when I took this. It didn't matter because no one else was around to notice.

Wonder why I come to Maine every summer? This is literally my view when I wake up every morning. I'm not kidding when I say that I took this photo while in my pajamas standing in the doorway of my cabin.

Anyway, Hobie and I are here. We made it safely to camp. All is well. You can stop worrying now, Mom.

I'm not entirely sure how long I've been here or what day of the week it is. I've already lost complete track of time. I'm also already nice and sunburned from spending the past two days driving jet skis and ski boats - or "working", as I like to call it.

On My Way To The USA!

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go....

It's been a good nine month stretch, Canada. But I'm ready to head back to my homeland.

I'm ready to see green one dollar bills.

I'm ready to hear people say bathroom instead of washroom.

I'm ready to measure my gas in gallons instead of liters.

I'm ready to understand how hot it is outside because people speak in fahrenheit, not celcius.

Most of all, I can't wait to hear someone say 'sorry' instead of 'sore-y'.

So, for the next two months blogging will be sporadic at best. I'm working at a camp in Maine for the summer where 15 hour days are the norm. I'm also taking a few online classes. Suffice it to say that I'll be busy.

On the up side, The Canadian and I will be having a blast and collecting lots of fun stories and taking tons of photos. I'll update you when I get the chance.

Don't give up on me.

Hobie and I are leaving today but TC and Maple won't be joining us for another few weeks.

I'll miss you, honey!





Yes, I'll even miss you too, you little turd.

Again, sporadic blogging will occur. Your regularly scheduled blogging will resume in late August.

This has been a public service announcement.

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

Some Catching Up To Do.

Last night I was having some technical difficulties. Safari was suddenly shutting down every time I opened it. Weird, but fixed now thanks to my ingenuity and mad googling skills.

It's late Wednesday night right now, which means you're probably reading this on Thursday, which means that the countdown to leaving for Maine will be in hour long increments. I'm a bit manic right now because there is so much going on that my head is about to explode.

I hate it when that happens.

I have to take a second and show you the awesome gift that The Canadian gave me for my birthday. These green tahitian pearl earrings match the beautiful ring he gave me last year. 

He knows me so well.

I didn't give him one iota to go on this year either. All by himself, he thought to call up my favorite pearl jewelry designer, La Vie Est Belle, and special order these works of art for me. 

God, I love him.

Remember this nonsense from last week? I had to get a photo of me playing in a public fountain for the Michael Todd Challenge. 

Yeah, well I somehow managed to advance to the 4th round (of 5) and now I have to get a photo of me - you're not going to believe this - brushing the hair of a person that is over the age of 70!

It has to happen tomorrow and I don't even know where to begin. How awkward is it going to be when I walk into an old folks salon and have to explain why I need to brush someone's hair and get a photo?

Speaking of hair, guess who went to the beauty parlor today! 

That's right. I'm $80 poorer but girlfriend smells like a flower. She's so clean that I could actually pet her and rub her ears. She doesn't even have elf feet anymore. 

Money well spent.

Friday morning I'm heading down to Maine where I'll be spending my whole summer working at a camp. The Canadian has to finish up work and will be joining me at the end of the month.

Because of this, I spent all evening packing. It's truly amazing how much crap I own. What is even more amazing is the sheer amount of that crap I need to survive for an entire summer of living in a cabin on the lake. I'm taking everything from flip-flops to Uggs, from wool sweaters to tank tops, from alarm clocks to bottle openers. You'd think after doing this for ten summers I would have packing down to a science. But I don't. Guaranteed that I forgot socks or toothpaste. Guaranteed.

I've been working on giving the living room a little face lift over the past few weeks. I should show you a 'before' picture - but then I'd blind you. So, let's just focus on the mantle that I just fixed up this week. New vases, new rocks, new reeds, new mirror, new white ball thingy-things, and a new black mantle (that is has an odd glare and is kind of blending in with the brick - trust me, it's black black black).

I'm not crazy about the wall color, but it is going to have to wait until the fall when I can repaint. I'm just going to focus on the mantle decor and how it is astronomically better than the junk that used to be there.

And please ignore the white lampshade. I know it is five inches too short. I'm working on it. Lampshades that are 16 inches long are not easy to come by.

After a crazy day, I took a minute to go meet up with some of the ladies for a quick drink tonight - it is Wednesday after all, and we meet every week like clockwork. 

Tonight my friend Laura gave me a birthday gift that everyone ooohed and ahhhed over. I, of course, had never heard of it. It's the American in my blood, I guess. 

She gave me a book that is a collection of stories. Stuart McLean hosts a radio show on the CBC called The Vinyl Cafe where he shares G-rated stories that he writes. Apparently, the stories are completely kid appropriate and all around awesome and hysterical. 

(Mandy and Sally, are you listening? This is probably a book you should check out.)

Does any other American know who Stuart McLean is? I'm worried this is a case of me living under a rock.

Happy Thursday! One more day until I'm back in my homeland on American soil.

Birthday Party.

This is how the birthday party ended. Very happy and way to full of wine, cake and delicious food.

Let's back up. 

To celebrate Christina's, Julie's and my birthday we had a small party this past Friday night. Our little soiree began sitting on Carla's porch. The weather finally was working in our favor and eight of us enjoyed a pre-dinner drink and some lively conversation.

Actually, there were nine of us. Little Miss likes a good party as much as she likes smiling with all of her teeth showing. 

I just so happened to have bubbles in the car that I thought Little Miss would enjoy playing with. She did enjoy them too.  Then The Canadian totally hijacked the bubbles and spent the next hour spilling the bubbles and occasionally blowing bubbles for Little Miss to try and catch.

Being the great host that he is, Tyler manned the grill so the three birthday girls could enjoy our birthday wine uninterrupted.

He grilled up some asparagus, potatoes and an array of meats. It was BYOM so we bombarded the poor guy with everything from chicken to pork chops to steak to salmon. 

Basically, the plan was keep the boys busy on the grill (or with bubbles, as it turns out) so us ladies could sneak in a few extra sips of wine without their judgement.

Of course dinner was delicious but the cake that followed was really the highlight. Carla out did herself.   We all made sure to clean our plates so there would be enough food in our bellies to counter copious amounts of wine if need be.

For a while we sat around on the porch, just hanging out, talking about nothing in particular.

But then Carla got the genius idea to whip up some fruity shots for the girls. I have logged my fair share of hours behind the bar and have a pretty solid grasp on shot-making 101. But this was something I've never ever heard of - banana liquor, white chocolate vodka and a splash of milk. I don't even remember what it was called. Crunch something?  Dear Lord, it was delicious.

So delicious, in fact, that we had several rounds of them. We only stopped when the white chocolate ran out. I couldn't decide if I should cry out of disappointment in our liquor shortage or in happiness that my liver was going to see another day.

As you can imagine, it went downhill from there and our good times turned into great times. Hence the photo at the top. 

I've loved every birthday that I have spent on America soil, but I gotta tell you, Canadians sure know how to celebrate a birthday too.

Cheers! To another great year!

Playing in a Public Fountain.

This is a nice innocent public fountain. It is two blocks from my house and sits right in the middle of Victoria Park. 

It's a grass type of park, not a playground type of park. There are benches, trees and flowers, and some lovely walking paths through the middle. 

Kids play frisbee, people walk their dogs, and Annie and I illegally jump in the fountain and cause scenes in the middle of the afternoon. 

Pretty typical park, if you ask me.

I've mentioned before this silly little Facebook Challenge that I have been competing in for the past two weeks. It's a series of trivia, puzzles and photo challenges that my good friend Michael Todd organizes every year and then sends out to sixty of our friends.

There are several rounds and with each round, half of the competitors are eliminated. Currently the Dirty Dozen is awaiting our scores to see who moves on to the Sick Six in Round 4.

Last Friday the twelve of us received our photo challenge and questions for Round 3. 

Past photo challenges included performing cartwheels, feeding babies, eating sandwiches and dancing in a public place.

To give you and idea of how ridiculous the trivia questions are, here are a few we had to answer from this round:

• North, East, South or West?
• Evens or Odds?
• When I was a child, I once wandered away from my dad and spent 8 hours lost in the desert. True or False?
• What was my second official girlfriend's name? Tamara, Angela, Kendra, Sarah, Johnna
• When I was a kid, I spent hours pacing up and down my street pretending to be a ___? Stunt man, soldier, spy, cowboy, or fireman.

There's more, but it is stressing me out just thinking about it.

Regardless, we are all competitive people and get really, really into this challenge.

Our pride is on the line. More importantly, bragging rights are on the line.

Alliances have been formed, alliances have been broken.

It's intense.

As you may have guessed, this photo challenge was to 'take a photo of yourself playing in what is clearly a public fountain.'

I was terrified the sirens were going to sound and police officers were going to immediately yell for me to put my hands where they could see them.

Fortunately, my friend Annie, who you saw above, is also part of the Dirty Dozen and was willing to go to the park with me and talk to the cops if it got that far.

Several people stopped and stared at us, but thankfully we made it out of there alive. A little wet, but one step closer to surviving the Challenge.

Is it bad that there is a small part of me that hopes for elimination because I'm scared of what the next round could bring? I don't know how much more of this I can take.